


they say we got our heads in the clouds

by wheo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Happy Birthday Keith!!!, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 14:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16389047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheo/pseuds/wheo
Summary: Here are some things he remembers: He is Keith Kogane, black paladin and leader of Voltron. He’s half-Galra, his mother is Krolia, and his father died in a fire. Shiro is his brother. He has lived all of his life, up until seven years ago, on Earth. He always knows what to do.You reach a dead end, you turn around, try something else.“Keith?”Lance is his dead end.





	they say we got our heads in the clouds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [undercelestialstars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/undercelestialstars/gifts).



> fic title is from super love by dami im

Keith was never good with dates, or remembering them. Keith was never good at remembering - in fact, a lot of his life has been spent trying to forget. Trying to forget the smell of burning wood and stranger’s hands on his shoulders and the heat of the fire warming his open palms, right at the fingertips of his reaching hands. Trying to forget something he can’t remember- a woman he has no pictures of but learns to call his mother, what through his father’s stories and what through his own imagination. Trying to forget a stern glare and a letter sent to a home he doesn’t have, his things packed in a bag as he does the thing he always remembers to do- leave.

 

The year he spent in the shack was a blur on its own. He vaguely remembers the noise of the wood settling, his fingerprints in the dust, threads of red connecting clues that lead to a dead end.  _ When you reach a dead end you turn around and try something else,  _ he thinks, and finds no other roads to follow, forgets his way back. He sits on the roof and looks at stars and connects them like the red thread, except the stars are infinite. You never get lost in infinity. There are no dead ends in infinity.

 

Here are some things he remembers: He is Keith Kogane, black paladin and leader of Voltron. He’s half-Galra, his mother is Krolia, and his father died in a fire. Shiro is his brother. He has lived all of his life, up until seven years ago, on Earth. He always knows what to do.  _ You reach a dead end, you turn around, try something else. _

 

“Keith?”

 

Lance is his dead end.

 

“Yeah?” he answers, slow, quiet. The ruins outside of the Garrison are still being repaired, a ghost town swarming with people, an odd contradiction. The sun starts to set, and soon enough, once everyone leaves, the ruins will go back to looking like exactly what they are- just ruins. A wreckage, an aftermath of something they’re all trying to forget. The stars leave no room for hiding. There is no place to hide in infinity. Keith wishes there was.

 

“Do you mind?” Lance asks, gesturing to the damaged block of stone Keith is sitting on. He flounders for a moment, the wind pushing his hair into his eyes, and he shakes his head to get it out. Keith almost smiles.

 

“Sure- I mean, no, I don’t. I don’t mind,” he says and thinks  _ there is no place to hide in infinity,  _ and doesn’t look at Lance. There are no secret passages in dead ends.

 

Lance sits down without a word. His presence is a heat of a flame, in Keith’s reach, at the tips of his fingers. Keith doesn’t want to get burned twice.

 

“Do you know,” Lance says then, after an odd amount of just silent breathing, “do you know what day it is today.”

 

_ Tuesday,  _ Keith thinks and says, “no.”

 

Lance looks at him with a weird kind of expression that he can see in the corner of his eye. He frowns as he says, “oh.”

 

“What? Is it someone’s birthday? As far as I know, your birthday is in July.”

 

“Yeah,” Lance says, a little soft, “you’re right. My birthday is in July.” There’s a beat of silence, long enough for Keith to consider getting up under some made-up excuse, but then Lance says, “it’s October twenty-third.”

 

Here’s the thing: Keith’s birthday is something Keith doesn’t even have to try to forget. It just happens- he hasn’t had any kind of a birthday party or any kind of “birthday activity” since he was nine years old. To him, his birthday is just another day. It’s something he has learned to forget. The fact that Lance remembered even though no one has ever mentioned it is- nice? In a way. It’s definitely something.

 

“Oh,” says Keith. 

 

“So,” says Lance. “I’m gonna look really stupid if it isn’t your birthday but- happy birthday?” He holds something in front of Keith’s face. Keith looks at it. It's a lump of black fabric, shining in a way that's oddly familiar.

 

“My gloves? Where did you get these?” he says and takes the gloves from Lance’s hand with a brush of fingers, a touch that’s barely there, and yet it makes his face heat up. Lance seems to have the same reaction.

 

“Uh, okay, long story, but remember how our rooms at the castle were like, right next to each other? Yeah, well, while I was getting my stuff I saw the boxes in your room and I figured- you were taking care of Shiro so I figured you won’t have the time to get them. It wasn’t - you didn’t have a lot of things and I could have taken your jacket but I thought, y’know. It wouldn’t fit. So I took the first thing I saw that I remember you holding on to a lot. You never took them off- also, they’ve been just, chilling in Red’s cockpit this whole time and I kind of- forgot? They fell over while I was moving that huge boulder with Pidge. But I guess good timing and all.”

 

Here’s the thing about dead ends: they make you feel lost, even if you aren’t. All you have to do is retrace your steps and go back- that is, after all, the only way you can go. When you reach a dead end, you turn around, try something else. You try again.

 

“Thanks a lot, Lance,” Keith says, his gloves clinging to his hands with familiarity. “That's... really thoughtful of you.”

 

“It’s nothing,” Lance says, and Keith turns to look at him. He’s smiling. There's a light in his eyes, like a light of a star.  _ Stars leave no room for hiding. _ “Keith, can I tell you something?”

 

“Sure, but before you do- did Shiro tell you? About my birthday, I mean. He probably did, didn’t he?”

 

Lance's smile falters before he puts it on again, though the light in his eyes is now merely a flicker. “Uh, yeah. Sure. I totally shouldn't tell you but- since I know you hate surprises -we're planning a surprise birthday party for you later tonight. Act surprised when it happens.”

 

“When what happens?” Keith asks, but Lance is already shuffling to his feet.

 

“Yeah. Something like that.”

* * *

It takes him seven hugs and a few hours of mindless chattering to get Shiro alone. It almost feels longer than the one year he spent in the shack.

 

“Why did you tell Lance about my birthday?” he asks, voice heavy, sounding almost angry, if you didn’t know him. Shiro knows him. Shiro doesn't look up from his phone.

 

“I didn't tell him anything. All of this was his idea,” he says softly.

 

“What? Why would he-"

 

“Keith,” Shiro says, pocketing his phone, “tell me all of the things Lance has done for you since you've met him.”

 

“What? Why? What does that have to do with anything?”

 

Shiro crosses his arms. “You'll see.”

 

_ This is stupid _ , Keith thinks,  _ this is fucking ridiculous,  _ and still, he starts talking: “He saved my life, helped me accept my status as the black paladin, saved my life again, gave me back my old gloves, threw me a surprise birthday party, apparently…” Shiro chuckles and Keith scowls. “What? Am I not seeing something?”

 

“You're not seeing a lot,” Shiro tells him. “Keith, do you remember what I gave to Adam when I confessed to him?”

 

Keith winces. After a moment spent in deep thought, he remembers. “You gave him that old teddy bear from his childhood home,” he says, and then, “oh. Do you think-”

 

“Do I think Lance might have wanted to tell you something before you threw in the assumption that I'm the one who told him about your birthday even though he's the one who's been planning this for quite some time? Yeah. Yeah, I do think that.”

 

“He told you what happened,” Keith says, and it isn't a question

 

“He told me what happened,” Shiro echoes. “Now go. He's probably outside.”

 

Keith blinks. “What am I supposed to tell him?”

 

_ You find a dead end, you retrace your steps, go back, try again.  _

 

“You'll know when you get there.”

* * *

Here are some things Keith remembers: He is Keith Kogane, black paladin and leader of Voltron. He’s half-Galra, his mother is Krolia, and his father died in a fire. Shiro is his brother. He has lived all of his life, up until seven years ago, on Earth. He always knows what to do, except when it comes to Lance.

 

“Lance?”

 

Lance is his dead end.

 

“Hi,” he says, and tucks his hands deeper into his jacket. He rocks on his feet. “What are you doing out here?”

 

“I was looking for you,” Keith says, far too honest, far too eager. He can see the surprise in Lance's expression. “I want to talk.”

 

“Okay,” Lance says simply. His jacket is less baggy on him now, and Keith realizes, with a jolt, that he's grown a lot taller since they’ve first left Earth. “What's up?”

 

“I- Lance, was there something that you wanted to tell me, back at the ruins?”

 

“Uh, I don't-"

 

Keith bites at his lip. “Shiro told me all of this was your idea.”

 

“Shiro told you all of this was my idea,” Lance echoes. “Shiro is a snitch.”

 

“Yeah, well, he didn't tell me everything,” Keith says. “Do you want to tell me everything?”

 

“This is how we're going to do this?” Lance asks, a gentle laugh weaving through his words. “What if I don't want to tell you everything? What if I'm scared that telling you everything would… ruin everything.”

 

“You don’t know my answer,” Keith says.

 

“I don’t,” Lance allows. “That's why I'm scared.”

 

Keith takes a step closer, fidgets with his gloves. “Would you be scared if you knew my answer?”

 

Lance doesn't think about it. The night is starry, and stars leave no room for hiding. 

 

“No.”

 

“Okay,” Keith says. “Okay, so let's say my answer is positive. What would you say?”

 

Lance looks down, tracing something on the ground with his shoe. When he looks back up, he’s biting down a smile. “I would say you cut me off mid-confession and I should leave you for that alone.”

 

“Oh? But you got me my gloves and everything,” Keith says, taking another step forward, waving his gloved hand in front of Lance. “You're really going to leave me because I'm dense?”

 

Lance laughs, the genuine kind of thing that erupts from his chest and tugs at Keith's own mouth. “Yeah, but that’s nothing new now, is it? You've always been that way.”

 

Here are some things Keith remembers: Lance tried to confess to him on his birthday. He cut Lance off from his confession, then went back, tried again. He kissed Lance under a starry night sky, with nowhere to hide. And somewhere in that moment, he felt infinite. There are no dead ends in infinity.

**Author's Note:**

> happy bday keith & happy almost birthday to char undercelestialstars.


End file.
